Essay #2
I recently watched a John McCain ad that aired 6-27-08. The ad made some huge and pretty unbelievable promises. John McCain states that we need to “shift our economy towards a new and cleaner power source”. He suggested these cleaner power sources could be obtained through wind, solar power, and bio fuels. He called it “Energy Security”. Doesn’t that sound fantastic. No more fuel costs is the first thing that ran through my mind. Then the ad showed a picture of green meadows with huge wind things. I’m assuming they were used for collecting energy, witch led me to believe that suddenly (if McCain were to win) we would have no more electric bills. I pulled all of these assumptions from a 5 minute clip supporting John McCain.
It’s easy to see how someone can get confused or mis lead when it comes to politics and upcoming election. I think the authors of the book unSpun help clear up the confusion that can sometimes come with political campaigns. I relate this video I watched to chapter three, when Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson describe some common tricks to watch out for. I think this video best fits what they call the “Baseline Bluff”. Jackson and Jamison gave a good example of the baseline bluff when they refer to politicians and how there always saying “cut”. The authors suggest that when they are talking about cut in a particular program they favor we need to realize that the cut could really only be a small decrease. Doesn’t that sound familiar? To me it sounds like McCain’s “Energy Security”. Although he may have good intentions, I have to question weather or not he will really change our economy towards a new and cleaner power source, or will he just make a few changes in select areas. McCain end his ad for Energy Security by saying “ I know how to do that, and I will do it”. I say “ Show me the proof”.
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to kim p
I'm with Lena in thinking the second paragraph more effectively introduces the video. It does those things the assignment calls for in the paragraph, such as making clear what the issue is, naming the video, introducing Jackson and Jamieson and their book and creating a context for the analysis of the video.
What is needed now is the body of the essay, one that follows through on notion that politicians make claims but often without providing proof of their ability to do what they claim. Still, they use the video to sell themselves in a variety of ways.
In some respects, this video plays on the savvy voter "Candidate mythology" of the savior. As President, John McCain will save us from an uncertain energy future. It could also be said that, even though this isn't included in the savvy voter criteria, that the mythology is that of an environmentalist. These two points could be combined, making him our energy savior through an environmental approach to energy. The question, then, is how does he do this.
Since I haven't seen the ad, I can only guess, but the description you provide could be looked at as part of the depicted actions, or the background locations. The actions are him at wind turbines, or wind farms. These are 21st century wind mills that generate electricity from the wind. He is probably shown in a hard hat admiring the technology. These actions make him look interested in the technology and the issue, and you'd probably want to say something about that.
The background locations, as you describe, also shows this environmental savior mythology. It's green fields and not barren parking lots or deserts. Green is obviously "greener" than a parking lot or a brown desert.
what I suggest is that you play up the environmental savior mythology in the introduction and then explain how the depicted actions, background locations and at least one other point develop this idea. Bradley
Thank you for breaking it
Thank you for breaking it down for me. I really needed some help. I was kind of unclear on some stuff, but now I feel a little better about what I was missing. Thank you to everyone who posted a comment about my essay. I really needed some help and you guys gave it to me. THANK YOU!
switch the paragraphs
I think your second paragraph would make a better intro. You tied it with the chapter three, just add a full title of the text and a quote from the text to support the issue that you chose.
In your first paragraph you have some great ideas that just need a bit more development based on savvy list.
See of you can create few more paragraphs, you have great ideas just add more examples and tie it all together.
Kelly's Response to Kimberly Essay
I have to echo all of Crystals(sorry if I got your name wrong)comments.
Introduction: The intro does need to reflect the format we were given for essay 1, in that we are supposed to put the book title, with authors etc. in the first paragraph. Also, include the entire title.
Essay Focus: I am unsure what the thesis of the essay is.
Development of Ideas and/or Experiences: Essay should be more developed.
Organization: Organization okay.
Wording/ structure/conventions: Here are some gramatical things I found that you probably will want to fix before you turn in the revised form.
(witch led me) needs to be: which led me
(if McCain were to win)needs to have commas seperating it from its sentence.
(confused or mis lead) mislead
(question weather or) whether
(McCain end his ad) ends
These are a few of the glaring gramatical things I found.
Adequacy of Response to Assignment: Other than that, try to connect the idea of the baseline bluff to the information in the dissect an ad.
Appropriateness: Topic is appropriate.
Kelly
Kim
I read your comment on Mr Blecks blog. So I hope this helps.
you have the right idea, but here is to help organize the essay. Start it out like essay one. An Intro with the book title, Authors names then introduce the video saying its like what Jackson and Jamieson said in the book "baseline bluff" with a quote from the book and how it relates to this video you watched and Mr McCain about his "cuts"
next dissect his ad that you watched using this article:
http://www.pbs.org/elections/savvydissect.html
does he seem to be our friend in the ad? our savior? war hero? ect?
what kind of music is played?to convey this(patroitic?)
props does he use?to convey this?(is there flags)
camera use?
cloths?(is suits, or normal cloths? describe it)
images? ect ect(what is being shown)